Hello TV Addicts! This is Mike V. of the Lost Addicts Blog among others. This blog covers any TV past, present and future! Look for my recaps/commentary on the latest episodes of Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead, archived recaps on Fringe and several others, and weekly open forums on the current episodes of several other favorite shows. Please continue to chime in with your thoughts too!

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Thursday, October 10, 2013

Hello TV Addicts and welcome back to the Revolution! We're still on a streak of decent episodes to begin this season. Less mythology driven events in this one, but the action and plot advancement were good. Let's not waste time making up nonsense for this intro and dive right into the recap!

Recap

The Nevilles (Georgia)

It's possible that Eric Kripke and crew consulted Kurt Sutter (Sons of Anarchy) on how to have a main character survive an unsurvivable situation! But, this episode continued to show Tom Neville and his son Jason work their way into the ranks of the Patriots. They were put on cooking/serving duty and Tom's plan was to work from the bottom up. It wasn't long before they were brought in to be vetted. But a ranking official knew exactly who Tom and his son were. He knew he was completely untrustworthy. Tom gave a pretty convincing speech that he blames Monroe (not the patriots) for the death of his wife and the launching of the nukes. But, this guy didn't believe him. Right there, should have been enough evidence for this crew not to even waste a minute trusting Neville. But, Secretary Justine Allen came in with those yellow werewolf eyes and her "ooh I'm so pretty and mysterious" stares and said that Tom would be useful even though they don't trust him. HUH?? We need Clay for the gun distribution again? (whoops wrong show)

So, Tom gets borrowed time to figure out his next move. The interesting thing in all of this is figuring out what's the plan for Jason? Secretary Allen said she had special plans for him. Maybe the Secretary is going to make him her "Sexretary"?? (wrong show again, right network though! Quote at 1:50ish mark in video) Ahh I kid, but all kidding aside, that very well could be what he becomes. You never know what this show and its use of "man candy". Speaking of, time to move to the next storyline!

Long story short here, Charlie was getting duped by Man Candy Perfect Teeth Guy. Monroe found a truck full of wanted flyers. Monroe's name was on one, but so was Rachel's. Uh oh. What's she wanted for? I dunno, probably something to do with her role in the blackout maybe false blaming for the bombing as well? We shall see. But the long and short of it is that Charlie and Monroe are now fighting for the same cause. But Charlie still doesn't trust him and left for Texas without him. Who wants to bet that Monroe will find a way to track her even though she is "untrackable"?

Key quote from this storyline was the extended scene of a camera following Charlie's rear and then seeing Man candy staring at it. Her response (paraphrased), "Keep your eyes at sea level or I'll poke them out." Have we seen the last of this bounty hunter? I guess with a bounty still on their heads, probably not.

Miles and Crew (Texas)
Lots going on here. We found out the girl behind the red door is Titus's wife who also is living on borrowed time. She is diabetic and has lots of other issues going on. But they keep her pumped with fresh O Negative at the expense of many other people's lives and she continues to live on. Miles starts to get his involuntary transfusion, when Rachel conveniently found a tunnel that led right to the room behind the red door! What are the odds!? Long story short, Miles is saved and they rescued Sarah, and took Titus's wife as a bargaining chip.

There was token "mad guy" back at the compound who thinks that Stu (Miles) has brought nothing but trouble since he arrived. And of course, trouble was not lurking far behind. Titus and his army showed up to get his wife back and ransack the town. Of course, there was an aside by his supposed #2 who clarified that HE is a Patriot and is paying Titus to scare the people of the town. But he doesn't want them all killed.

Miles meanwhile promises Titus can see his wife Jessica for proof that she's alive, but then they're going to talk about a plan to resolve this issue without violence. This was done, but we also found out Jessica was unhappy about still being alive. She hates being married to child porn connoisseur Titus. She saw her sickness as a way out, but he wouldn't let her have it. So, in the end, she waits for her opportunity and slits her writs with broken glass. RIP Jessica. You just made things incredibly difficult for the town!

Miles and Titus still come to an agreement that the town will be emptied out and Miles will subject himself to the blood transfusion to save Jessica one more time. However, Titus whispered into his buddy's ear to go check in on his wife. We'll call the buddy "Monkey Boy" because he was literally climbing and jumping around like a monkey working his way to Jessica's room. Of course, he found out she was dead which lead to an all out battle!

The town was able to get off a few wagons of civilians, but Aaron's wagon got caught in the crossfire. He took thinks into his own hands and protected the people from his wagon.

Miles and Rachel fought side by side with the 3 of their working hands. But Rachel got an arrow to the chest and fell unconscious. I thought we'd be getting another resurrection on our hands, but she still had a pulse apparently at the end of the episode. When all hope seemed lost, machine guns came in from every direction and took out Titus's crew. And Titus's PATRIOT friend suffocated Titus to death (I think).

American flag was raised at town hall, and the "American Troops" were marching down the streets. The patriots have taken over and Miles seemed to not think everything turned out for the better.

And that's where we left things this week. There are a couple other things to discuss, not much!

Discussion Points

Aaron and Cynthia (his girlfriend) had a discussion about what really caused the blackout and his "resurrection". While Cynthia thinks it all sounds ridiculous, she still thinks that God or something supernatural/natural (i.e. nature) CHOSE to have Aaron survive. Something beyond just a computer. I'm sure this is all leading somewhere. And our commenter Bryan last week had a good theory that maybe the machines are evolving and want to protect their creators somehow. I guess we'll see!

Not sure I remember this, but Monroe brought up that Randall had the "all seeing eye" symbol on his ring. We knew he was a patriot, but I forgot we may have seen the symbol last season too. But more attention to the symbol makes me still think we're going into Masonic territory or some kind of secret society.

So, I still wonder if we're going to see some magical healing powers affect other people. Miles has a messed up hand. Rachel has been shot with an arrow in the chest. This would probably put normal people out of commission for awhile. We'll see what happens!

I thought after this episode we might be leaving this Texas Compound that their in, but it looks like we're just changing the stakes a bit. But, it's clear that all of our characters are getting pulled into the same plot so they probably will be ending up in the same location eventually.

And of course, the big question is what do the Patriots need in Texas and more particular this area of Texas? Did they know Rachel was there? Because we know there's a bounty on her head. Or is there something else in Texas that they're looking for? I guess we'll find out.

That's all I can extract from the episode this week. Hope you enjoyed my ramblings and I'll see you next week!

9 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Ok--so no props on the transfusion prediction?

1.Rachel isn't dead/didn't die, so she can't really help us with the fireflies power, etc. Others in the area have died, but they weren't in the tower. I still think there's something about this area that the Patriots want that is related to the power or something of value, not just general land grab--I say this because of the rats and their under cover nature, until now. Certainly interesting that the head Patriot guy that killed Titus didn't want all the people killed.

2.BTW, was I the only one that was waiting for Aaron to come in and do something or somehow see Titus's wife resurrect?

3.Monroe and Miles go back a long way and so I could see them joining forces. Charlie, helping her mother and Mr. Candy will be along too of course.

4.Neville--can you imagine being his son and watching how this guy operates--it would warp him. Speaking of, what's up with werewolf eyes and Neville's son? Mike, btw, great on describing those eyes--LOL. It will be interesting when Mr. Candy and Neville's son meet up for Charlie, or am I remembering wrong that Charlie had a thing for Neville's son?

5.To me, Aaron's resurrection is really about the larger story going on this season. The Patroits and them taking over and those conflicts will be the ep to ep action, but the overarching theme will be the mystery of what's going on with the fireflies, rats,Aaron,etc.

6.I may be wrong, but it occurred to me that in last season, Mile's injuries at the beginning of the ep wouldn't even be an issue at the end of the ep. But for this season, it seems more realistic and therefore action that seems more acceptable and therefore appealing.

7.This ep really set up a fight/conflict between the Patriots and the old guard(Miles/Monroe). Miles certainly didn't like to see what was going on. Wonder how long it will take before the Patriot leaders realize they've got a wanted fugitive in Rachel--"medic"?

8.BTW, I couldn't tell, but has anyone checked out the star count on the Patriots flag to see if there are 50?

OH, forgot to say, that when I saw Rachel come up right in front of Miles, I was like, "really--shades of last season junk"-lol. But really forgave/forgot since the rest was pretty good.

And am I the only one that wonders why we send in a rescue party to save one person and end up loosing an equal or greater number of people in the end. It's like we're playing God and deciding this person's life is worth more than the other random guy--oh well that's drama TV--LOL.

Sorry Richard, I forgot! I write things things fairly quickly. Only reason I remembered Bryan's theory was because he posted it yesterday. Yes, props to you! lol

1.) My point with the fireflies/nanites helping with Rachel or Miles or whatever...was that maybe they have "healing powers" not necessarily just LIFE RESTORING powers.

But yeah, valid point that the area is of interest by the patriots because of the strange stuff happening there. Of course, the fact that something only happened to Aaron and no one else, makes me think it's tied to something that happened in the tower. Of course, the rats could be one thing and the fireflies could be something else. We just assumed to tie it together.

2. I was thinking Titus's wife may resurrect, but I didn't necessarily think Aaron would be there.

3. Oh yeah...they're clearly setting up Monroe to be working with the heroes this season. But there will be bad blood there due to everything that's happened. But, sometimes a common enemy is all you need to have characters join forces.

4. Yeah... Man Candy 1 and Man Candy 2 come face to face? Those are the days we dream of. (I am just starting to realize how ridiculous I sound talking about this. I'm straight and married!! lol But, just speaking to the show obviously casting attractive men to pine for Charlie. lol) There definitely was an attraction between Jason and Charlie last season. They may reintroduce that later this season if they end up in the same setting. No idea what's up with Justine and Jason. She she clearly has some interest in him.

5. Yeah, I would agree with that. It's "mythological" question of this season. Last year was what caused the blackout (nannites)...this year it seems to be the evolution of the nannites.

6. Yeah...good point. I was trying to pinpoint what's better about this season. Maybe it's the attention to details like that. Definitely grittier than last season. They also weeded out the bad characters and kept the good ones. Dialogue has been better and wittier when appropriate. And the level of mystery and intrigue is there now.

7. I wonder if they already realize who Rachel is. I guess maybe not every troop in the Patriot army would recognize a wanted fugitive instantly. lol

8. I have definitely not counted the stars on the flag, but I'm going to guess since the blackout happened around our present day and they claim to want to restore our government, that there are 50 on it.

As for the convenience of Rachel showing up in front of Miles...I think they just threw that in there so I could make fun of it in my recap. :-) Agreed...when the show is better in general, conveniences like that are less bothersome.

And good point with saving Miles...I always think about that with shows like this. lol Crazy red shirts are so expendable!

it seems obvious since Randall was Rachel's "boss" that this is a faction of the US Govt that may or may not include the "actual" president, that caused the blackout and now is coming in on a white horse..but they started it all to begin with..probably a rogue element of the govt like FEMA or something (XFiles ref...)

its possible if this was "real" they would be benevolent and be the Masons or whatever founded the country (probably racists that now see America as "impure")..thats gonna be my call, they will claim to be original founders of America like GWs and stuff (since he was a Mason) and they were "purifying" America (for whatever "bad guy" reasons)

@AUSW - Welcome back to the comments! I would agree that from the evidence we've seen that these Patriots are behind the original blackout. But yeah your 2nd paragraph makes a lot of sense. "original founders" stuff.

Of course, from a Devil's advocate point of view...would they really have put a plan in place that would wait 15 years for phase 2? Let the country fall apart and then rise from the ashes and reclaim it back? Perhaps this a group that formed in those 15 years and came up with this long con of a plan during that period?

FWIW, I think your theory is more on the money, but just looking from a different perspective! lol If they are true patriots going back to 1776's standards, then what's another 15 years of turmoil before going back to basics?

And of course...the fact that the show is called "REVOLUTION" and we're returning to "Revolutionary War" themes, makes a lot of sense too.

LOL on Kripke/Sutter - but Kripke needs no instruction - he did Supernatural for 5 years. Not only do the Winchester boys never die, but they actually die and keep coming back somehow. LOL The whole thing with this guys wife - so dumb. Why keep killing people who can give her blood ? Keep them alive to keep producing more ! Really bad story that one.

Interesting having the Patriots have hired bad guys to go around and harass people just so the govt can come riding to the rescue - just to show people they need their govt. I didn't think they wanted Texas or that area of Texas so much as they want people to get behind them/join them. I didn't remember seeing that ring either.

Richard - I also felt that Aaron was going to save that woman but glad he didn't and they didn't go there. I thought they already did the two guy thing with Charlie last year? Jason and some other guy she liked met eachother and it was laughably tense I thought.

I did think the same thing with the blood. lol Seemed like a waste. Maybe the recovery time of the donor isn't quick enough?

Anyway, I didn't think Kripke was actually stealing Sutter's plot ideas. It was just another excuse to playfully make fun of Sons of Anarchy again. :-) lol

Yeah...I originally was thinking the people in Texas and not the area in Texas. But, it could be both...who knows? But considering Rachel is wanted by the Patriots, it lends to the idea that it's the people.

Don't remember the love triangle from last season, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen. There just was a lot of forgettable B stories last year! lol

If the idea of the Patriots is to set up a straw man threat, then come in and be the heroes, it begs the question of, is this a mode of operations? With what the Patriot leader said to Titus, it could certainly have been a straw man threat.

But for it to be a mode of operations begs another question of how widely and where else is this being done as well as how does the Patriot group have the resources to conduct such operations around the country?

Which goes back to the question of, why this area of Texas unless this is just one of several locations and Rachel's Dad just happened to be in TX drawing MIles and crew into the fight for us to watch?

I truly hope that it's more than just a random thing to avoid falling back into last years weak plotlines?